Oct 9, 2008

Bit by bit

As we watch the government slowly take control of everything that was once private, and promise - nay, GUARANTEE - our well being, realize that this has all happened before. It just happened somewhere else. And if we continue down this road of government doing FOR us, it will end with government doing TO us. Because what does a government do before it protects it's citizens? Why, it protects itself, of course. Behold, the UK:

A gardener has been ordered by council chiefs to remove three foot high barbed wire ringing his allotment - in case thieves scratch themselves climbing over it.

Bill Malcolm, 61, took the drastic step of installing the wire in a bid to prevent burglars raiding his tool shed and ransacking his vegetable plots.

Intruders have struck three times in four months, stealing more than £300 worth of hardware, including spades, forks and hoes as well as destroying his potato patch. The fed-up gardener surrounded his 600 square yard site in Worcester with asingle strand of barbed wire, which stood no more than waist high.

But his local council declared the security measure was a health and safety hazard and warned him they would forcibly remove it if he refused....They didn't want to be sued by a wounded thief.

Want to see a country slowly being overrun with illegals where the immigration laws are barely enforced, and the laws of the immigrants are declared the equal of the laws of the land? Want to have nationalized health care that drains your paycheck dry and works passably well... provided you don't die before you make it to the head of the line? Want to see guns snatched up from the law-abiding public, while criminals laugh at the very concept of a "gun-free zone"? All these things, done with the supposed intention of ENSURING the public welfare (a power nowhere in the US Constitution, but now provided to the Treasury Secretary courtesy of the trillion dollar turd-burger passed by Congress) have already happened... inGreatBritain.

So the next time some politician - ANY politician - says "I will provide you with X," they are likely setting you up. You may thank them for it initially, but more often than not they are promising you the very thing that they will then use to OWN you later on down the road. Too many Americans don't remember JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you." As they kill brain cells watching American Idol and The View and Oprah, their only question has become, "why should I do anything for myself when the government should do it for me?"

Our freedom of speech is guaranteed because our constitution says that congress "shall make no law" that infringes on that freedom. All of our rights are guaranteed in this manner... by explaining what it is exactly that the government can't do. Phrases like "shall make no law", "shall not be violated", and "shall not be infringed" are pretty straightforward and leave little room for interpretation -- Your rights are protected because government is prohibited from passing any laws in these areas.

On the other hand, the "rights" granted to the citizens of the USSR are in fact a list of things that the government must do - The government must give you a job ... the government must give you health care ... the government must give you an education ... and (since the state owns all machinery) the government must give you a printing press for you to practice your freedom [of] speech. But of course, if you aren't working "to strengthen the socialist system", don't hold your breath waiting for your printing press.

Anybody want to live in the USSA - Union of Socialist States of America? Because I sure don't.

UPDATE: I just read all that stuff I wrote again and it depressed the hell outta me. But hope springs eternal...